New statistics show that many of us are skipping the ads before films – and as such, one cinema chain is adding more ads.
So far, it hasn’t been the most fun week to do the news beat for the world of film. Yesterday we learned that lots of Hollywood executives believe that the theatrical sector as we know it is doomed, while elsewhere today, audiences are being told that the impending death of original animation is all their fault.
And then there’s this story, hidden within The Hollywood Reporter's wider piece which reveals that America’s biggest cinema chain, AMC, is about to add more adverts to its pre-show line-up.
As part of the piece exploring AMC’s decision to stuff more adverts into its pre-film slate (without taking the film’s start 30 minutes past the scheduled time, we should add), the outlet throws some interesting statistics in our direction, such as this one: ‘Only 60 percent of moviegoers this year were in their seats when trailers started playing.’
Everybody else was presumably timing their arrival strategically to avoid the onslaught of advertising, and in doing so, missed the coming attractions. That’s a lot of potential eyeballs that could be enticed in for some repeat business that aren’t being catered to.
“Movie-going behaviour is shifting and continued experimentation with how to engage audiences is necessary,” says analyst Steve Buck. In central movie-going locations where audiences are perhaps even hipper to the dark arts of pre-film advertising, the attendance is even lower. According to the piece, ‘so far this year, only 42 percent of LA moviegoers were in their seats in time to see every trailer, compared to 55 percent last year. The New York state is likewise at 42 percent this year, compared to 47 percent last year.’
That downward trend is surely worrying. Yes, trailers are available to watch elsewhere, you might argue, but the impact of viewing a trailer in a cinema is surely much more powerful than watching it on your phone at the bus stop. By adding increasing numbers of other adverts before films – and an increasing number of ads after the trailers when your audience is at its most captive – are cinemas destroying their own marketing potential and cannibalising their opportunity to entice customers back for future films? The above data suggests that could well be the case.
